Oct 15/16 Meteors

October 16, 2009

Last night saw a large increase in the number of Orionids. Last night the 3 cameras detected 159 meteors of which 28 or 18% were Orionids. Tonight the same 3 cameras saw 177 meteors with 55 or 31% being Orionids.

We are still ~5 or 6 days from maximum so the best of the Orionids is yet to come. According to the IMO’s Live ZHR graph, the Orionids were only producing ~4 or 5 meteors per hour for visual observers under dark skies. We can expect that rate to climb to a max of anywhere from 30 to 70 per hour.

Bob’s note for 10/15: “It was another excellent night for meteor activity. The overall totals were similar to yesterday. Most notable was the increase in Orionid activity.”